St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-01-02
RICH MEN OF GOTHAM.
e. S. Jafray's Great Beartin Business
With His Millions.
Sharp's Queer Methods--Piety and
Millions of Rockefeller.

The late death of Mrs. Alexander L.
Stewart and the provisions of her WILL sub
stantally leaving the bulk of her property
to Judge Hilton, who has had entire charge
OF it for ten years, naturally suggests the
accumulation OF great fortunes from small
beginnings. Most of our rich citizens have
made their own money, which, after making
it, has done them or anybody else precious
little good.
The great merchant was a case in point.
He could hardly have imagined at any time
that he was toiling constantly, deyoting
body and mind to business. merely to add
after his death to the surperfiuous wealth OF
an already wealthy man. But this was
really what his sixty years of untiring labor
amounted to. No man IN this century
has so wasted lifelong exertion as Stewart
did. Other millionaries have at least the
satisfaction of leaving their property to
their kindred, whether they need it or not.
Stewart had no kindred, no friends in the
true sense. He may have intended to
bestow large part of what he had ac-
cumulated on this city-he had frequently
lntimated as much-but he was too selfish
to do it while in good health, and
death came, as usual, unexpectedly, and
baked any such purpose if he had ever had
it. Stewards life and death, and their ut
ter fruitltSsneSS, should be warning to
men who exhaust themselves in piling up
dollars and have no other than monetary
ambition But it will not be. Purely mer-
cenary men are too much absorbed i'll their
pursuits to heed warnings of any kind.
They often think, after they have begun to
prosper greatly, that they will make hand
some requests for the benefit of the COM
munity; that they will endow colleges,
libraries, art galleries. But the longer they
entertain the idea, and the richer they
grow, the less likely they are to carry 1t
out. Their augmented wealth so increases
their greed that they cannot let go of any
portion of their adored money:
E. S. Jatfray, the well-known dry goods
merchant, is as different man as possible
from what A. L. Stewart was. He is very
rich and has long been so, and has earned
his riches by the highest commercial and
moral qualities. OF Scotch extraction, he
began here half a century ago, am told, as
clerk-he is now past 70-and by indus
try. integrity and capacity rose steadily and
rapidly, until he was enabled to go into
business on his own account. Everybody
who knows him respects and likes him. He
of men. All his employees. even to the
humblest. are attached to him. and with
reason, because he is ever thoughtful of
their needs and ever doing good offices for
them. There is probably not another such en-
ployer in the whole city. His generosity
is unceasng. his sympathy unbounded. He
is like father to the men in his service; IN
truth. he is far more considerable than many
fathers are. He advances their salaries.
unsolicited whenever they are worthy, and
periodically makes them handsome pres
ents. A number of them have been in his
employ for years and years, some of them
having grown there from youth to middle
and even to mature age.
The genuine admiration and affection felt
for him throughout the whole establish
ment is said to be positively touching.
From the messenger boy to the leading
bookkeeper the whole house is devoted to
him: there is no sacrifice that any one
would not make in his behalf. He always
has a smile. pleasant word. kindly
grasp of the hand for each and all.
Jatfray seldom speaks Of these things;
they are scarcely known outside Of his im-
mediate circle. He is entirely free from
vanity in any form, and, above all. he is
smple-hearted and devoid of oStentation.
He seems to be unconscious that his con-
duct is in any way unusual-that he is
different from the mercantile class gener-
ally. He probably thinks it his duty to act
precisely as he does. If it be his duty, how
marvelously undutiful many other mer-
chants must be!
This story illustrates the feeling enter
Gained for the dear old man. Some years
ago he was quite ill; so III, indeed, that his
physicians had fear at one time thal he
Of &c c1,ho OF
were so weighed down with sorrow that
they were hardly capable of doing their APP
pointed work, and several of the boys in
the house were more than once detected in
shedding tears. When he grew better,
and it was announced one even
ing by a bulletin, sent three times
day at the urgent request of
the employees, that he was out of danger,
nearly every man in the establishment wept
for JOY. When this was told to the noble
hearted merchant his own eyes were moist
ened. and he said very modestly: eff / have
been good to my faithful friends. to whom
l owe SO much, their expression Of feeling
at my recovery has more than repaid me"
The hard rule so often quoted in COM
mercial circles that there is no sentiment
in business is not applicable to the firm of
E. S. Jaffray & Co. The senior partner,
exceptional success to the unVarying kind
ness of his heart.
l wonder if he will leave anything to the
city in which he has accumulated his vast
fortune. Such thing is scarcely to be
hoped for here. But he has been so uni
formly kind and benevolent in the ordinary
relations of life that there is reason to be-
lieve he may in the end prove a public ben
efactor.
One man who has lately become unpleas-
antly notorious, from whom nothing like
generosity of any sort would be expected. is
Jacob Sharp. AS everybody knows, he is
now under bail for $50, 900 on charge of
bribing the aldermen to gain their permits
sion to build horse-car line in Broadway
His trial is set down for next month, but it
is generally believed here that if he cannot
get it postponed he will forfeit his bail,
naturally prefemring the loss of $50 900 to
several years in the states prison. He is,
no doubt, conscious that he would be found
guilty. Bribing aldermen has long been a
regular business in New York, but as the
community is now enjoying moral spasm,
the offense, when proved, is almost certain
to be punished. A year or two hence any
amount of bribing may go Oh again without
hinderance or reproof. Municipal abuses
are so common that they are taken as mat
Eers of course. Occasionally they are so
high-handed and audacious that the public
wakes indignant and insists that some
thing like justice shall be rendered.
It was not so with the Tweed ring.
Everybody knew that the city treasury was
robbed, and had been for years, though the
extraordinary extent of the robbery at that
particular time was not suspected. The
disclosure and downfall of the political ras-
Gals were not even in that case the conse-